Wolf
by railway95
Summary: Tom Smith, a shy teenager studying at college gets caught up in a folklore surrounding a curse, a beast and the full moon. As his best friend becomes a victim to the horrifying monster, Tom discovers that this monster has roots dating back to a incident ten years ago. As he becomes more involved he learns of the tragic story behind this creature he will put those he loves in danger
1. Prologue

Prologue

The moon shined brightly like a diamond in the sky. Its light travelled down to the Earth, illuminating the land out of the darkness. In the forest of a resident community in Britain, a beast prowled the forest in search of prey. It was a solitary creature, an independent monster which attacked anything and anyone who came across its path. Its fur was shining silver; its teeth were as large as a man's hand; its claws were as sharp as nails. It walked on all four limbs and sniffed the air for food. Its black noise had an exquisite sense of smell. Its peering eyes stared around the bushes and trees surrounding it, searching for movement. A small noise was heard ahead from where the beast was walking. The creature stopped and listened, its ears focusing. Another noise was made ahead. A sort of crunching noise came from behind the bush in front. The animal silently crouched down, preparing to pounce and moved forward. The crunching noise ahead got louder as something moved around. The beast got as close as it could and waited. The small animal in the bush moved again once more, this time into view of the monster's eyes. It pounced without hesitation.

The beast grabbed the small mammal in its claws and dug them deep into the mammal's skin. The beast then impaled the animal with its own huge teeth and picked up the hare in its mouth. The creature shook its victim manically and threw it to the floor before mauling it to death. Once the beast made sure the hare was dead, it began to eat.

After the hare had been devoured, the beast continued its prowl of the woods and left the bones and bits of carcass left of the mammal. It no longer needed to hunt for tonight and made its way to a small opening in the forest, where the trees separated and the moonlight shone brightly upon the ground. The monster made its way to the beam of light coming from the thing that was the reason for its existence. It did not realise however the important of the moon in the sky and how it relied upon it. The beast stepped directly under the light and looked up at the producer of it. It stared at it before animal instinct kicked in. The creature suddenly stood up on its hind legs, its front paws by its side as it looked into the sky; and howled into the night.

The people of a local town did not sense the presence of this creature. However the local farmer did and heard this dreadful howl three times every month for as long as he stayed near the forest.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

The local farmer, Ben Daniels, wondered this as he lay awake in his bed. He heard the howls every month, three times on separate nights. He had no idea what that noise could come from, people from the town said it was just a wolf or a pack of wolves however the howl that he heard seemed more monstrous than that. Slowly he got up and rose from his bed, pulling the sheets off and standing up and stretching. He stared out of his window and into the fields and the woods that were in the distance. It was too dark to make out anything but the tress in the distance, their dark silhouettes standing out against the blue sky as the stars and moon shone.

A sudden squeal came from outside his cottage that made Ben jump in fright. The noise of many footsteps from his cattle came from outside. Ben could also hear a snarling noise nearby and felt the hairs on the back of his neck go up. He lived alone in a tiny house, with a small bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. His house was in the middle of a large field about five miles away from the town of New Wood. If he died here, no one would find out for quite a while. The town of New Wood was five miles away from his house, which stood alone in a field, so the chances of anyone passing his house were very slim. Slowly he pulled the net curtains from the window to get a clearer view outside. The dark blue sky had cast a shadow over most of the field with black outlines for trees and animals. Ben angled himself to look at his cattle to see what the disturbance was. The cows, sheep and horses were all awake and moving slowly about, as if they were looking around.

_ Maybe it's early morning._

Ben rushed around and pulled open a drawer that stood next to his bed. Inside was a rechargeable torch he had got last year, tired of using candles and older methods. Picking it up and switching it on, Ben shined the beam of light towards his wooden clock on the wall. It pointed to half past midnight. His expression becoming more worrying, Ben quickly looked back outside the window. The animals were moving again, this time moving faster. It was as if they were trying to get away from something else that had gotten into the farm. He peered closer to the window, his nose touching the frosty glass. He looked around. The animals had stopped moving and had crowded around an area furthest from the window. Ben watched silently. A sudden shadow, at least eight feet tall ran past the window at an incredible speed. At once Ben jumped back and closed the net curtains. He could hear movement outside.

_The howling monster in the woods. _

Ben slowly reached back towards the drawer and opened it again, this time taking out a letter opening knife. He put down the torch and held the knife in his right hand. Even at the age of fifty-five, he still had an imagination. He could picture in his head, the monster appearing in the window, it drooling at him as it growled and then it would break through the window and he would live no more. However curiosity got the better of Ben and he walked towards the window. His room was still in darkness which made him even more frightened. He had reached the window and time seemed to slow down as he reached for the net curtains. His hands were both shaking and his grip on the knife became tighter. In one quick movement, he threw open the curtains and looked outside.

Darkness. No movement. No sounds. Just darkness. Everything had become still again outside.

Ben looked around outside, swerving his head from side to side.

_Maybe it was just my imagination._

At that second, a large animal ran in front of the window and turned towards it. Its nose must have been an inch away as when it growled, its breath fogged up the window. Ben only caught a glance at its vicious wolf-like face before it turned and ran in the opposite direction. Ben froze. His face had gone a pale white and his hands had stopped shaking in shock. He stood there looking out the window for a min before he snapped out of his shock. He immediately went around his house turning on all the lights. He wouldn't be able to sleep after seeing those bloodthirsty eyes. _And what if it came back?_ Ben tried to ignore that thought but alas could not. He sat down by the table in the kitchen and looked up into the sky, still holding the knife. Through the window he saw the moon in the sky and for a second he forgot all about the monster outside his house as he gazed up at the full moon, floating in the night sky.

The sun rose early next morning. Ben slowly opened his eye lids and gazed around the kitchen room slowly. His vision was slightly blurry and a killer of a headache had fallen upon him. He sat up, dazed and confused and as he rubbed his eyes with his hands, the events of last night returned to him. The howlings, the movement outside, the horrible monster at the window. It all came back to him. However, as if it were a bad dream, Ben did not feel afraid any more of whatever was outside his house last night.

_It could have been a wolf or a stray dog or perhaps it was my imagination. Monsters don't exist._

After this thought, Ben confidently stood up and went to put on some real clothes, his fears driven out of his mind.

Despite Ben now disbelieving in the thing he saw last night, he still felt like he should have a check around to make sure everything was...ok. He started with the farm animals as they were probably very important to him, being a farmer for the local market. If something happened to him, Ben would hit rock bottom and would be unemployed and sleeping on the streets. He barely got past now. With increasing technology, Ben felt more and more worried about his "older" methods of farming. As he stepped onto the field he noticed one thing.

Everything was fine from first look.

No carcasses. No blood. No signs of his animals escaping. Nothing. Ben smiled as he looked through the field. He turned and went to check his livestock in the indoor pens. He noticed some damage to the door leading to the chicken hen house and saw scratch marks on the doorknob. He reached out and touched it. It didn't seem to be a recent marking. Ignoring it, Ben opened the door and stepped inside. He was greeted by the clucking of dozens of chickens. With a quick glance around, Ben could see nothing wrong.

About thirty minutes later, Ben had checked almost all of his livestock and had visited the barns to check his horses, pigs, cows etc. All that was left was the sheep and their lambs. He opened the door to the last barn and fearing nothing stepped inside. And froze. The smell of rot and flesh hit him. His eyes fixed on the scene before him. It was what he imagined a slaughter house would look like; all blood and guts everywhere. Carcasses of lambs spread across the floor were ripped in half and had colossal deep scratches covering what was left of the body. Guts and organs and things so disgusting Ben couldn't describe it, trailed along the floor and walls. After minutes of staring, Ben bolted outside and regurgitated.

He stared outside his window, back in the conformity of his home. He had padlocked and had been busy adding security to his land all day but soon the sun would set and he was sure that _it_ would come back. He had tried call the police and they did come over to look but suggested that he put better security over his barns. They did give him some locks for his property and did say they were going to get the person responsible. When he told them he thought it was something not someone, they had simply laughed and said that Britain has no more natural dangerous predators and that suggested the only thing it could have been was a fox. But since a fox couldn't rip up livestock like that, the idea was preposterous. After that the police had left and he was on his own again. He had locked up everything around 5 o'clock and had dinner shortly after. And here he was now at 7 o'clock watching the sun set out of his window. The same window he saw the creature last night. He saw the horizon start to black out around seven-thirty and saw night fall at eight. The howls always came after dark. He sat in his bedroom and waited.

The time was twelve- fifteen. Ben was still wide awake holding a handgun in one hand (he had one that belonged to his farther in world war two) , a Browning. Tucked inside his belt was the knife he held last night. He was trying to read a book to pass the time but kept finding his attention being drawn back to the window. The darkness concealed the outside. Nothing could be seen or heard for that matter. Ben again tried to continue reading again when suddenly a rustling could be heard outside. Instantly, Ben jumped out and rushed to the window and pulled the net curtains up. It was too dark to see anything. A second rustling noise came, this time closer to the house. Ben, expeditiously, moved through the house turning all the lights on in the house. As he reached the front door, he switched on the porch lights and saw a bright light illuminate the darkness around the house. He went to open the door. As he touched the doorknob he stopped. The hand that was holding the gun was shaking. He turned to look outside. Breathing in, he stepped outside.

The air was cold in the winter night. Mist formed from his breathes as he exhaled. His shivering got worse as his fear combined with the chilly air. He tightened his grip on the handgun and rose it forwards, pointing it towards the darkness. He moved forward, hearing his heart in his mouth, hearing the footsteps beneath his feet crunch the frosty grass. He looked around and focused his sense on any movement. He couldn't even see nor hear his animals which _hopefully_ meant they were all asleep. A third rustling sound came from a pile of leaves that he had stacked up from Autumn. He swallowed and walked towards it, his handgun aimed at now still pile. A sudden movement and something jumped out of the leaves.

Ben gasped and fired and stared down at the dead mouse's body. He looked down breathing heavily. He lowered the gun and backed away.

_Silly old fool. Believing in monsters. _

Ben turned away and went back into the house where he fell asleep on his bed. Not too far away, a man stumbled into the forest. He didn't stop moving, a terrified look on his face. He looked ahead and ran deeper into the forest as if something was chasing him. The night sky shined above as the stars twinkled. However this night, the moon lay hidden in the darkness.

Time passed. The events of that night slowly left Ben's memory.

One month later...

The streets of New Wood were filled with the noises of excitement and anticipation. Crowds of people stood around the streets, chattering away. Mothers, fathers and children, people of all types and ages were here. The New Wood festival was the biggest event of the year in the community. It was the day the town was founded by a Ralph Wood in 1805. Ever since then on the 2nd October, a festival was held to celebrate the founding. New Wood before Ralph Wood was a small little poor village. But when he came along, the town prospered to a town and businesses and schools and hospitals were set up as the town grew and grew all thanks to Ralph Wood. He died exactly a year later after founding the town and running it as Mayor.

The mayor now, Harry Wood, a descendant of Ralph, stood in the middle of the high street of New Wood and looked at the crowd before him. He held the microphone underneath his mouth and shouted,

"Ladies and Gentleman. I'd like to welcome you all to the 196th New Wood Festival."

The sound of roaring, cheering and clapping filled the air and Harry stopped his speech until silence returned.

"It has nearly been two centuries since my great, great, great grandfather founded this village into the town you stand in today. If he could see how much the community has progressed since then, he would have been proud."

Ben watched the mayor from afar, down the high street, a crowd of families blocking his view. The speech was the same almost every year, except the odd changes. He looked around at the street. Every year it was like more and more people came. He smiled a bit. It was nice seeing the area in which he grown up in grow and develop as he did into an adult. A tall muscular youth walking into Ben disrupted his thoughts. The youth shouldered Ben hard as he walked by, almost knocking Ben over.

"Hey watch were you are going!"

Ben yelled at the youth. The man stopped and turned round. His eyes were a deathly black. His face was a ghostly pale. Ben felt extremely intimidated and turned away and looked the night sky, avoiding the youth's gaze. The man hesitated and then walked away and disappeared through the crowds. Ben looked to make sure the man was gone from site and moved away from where he was standing, feeling uneasy from his encounter. He focused his attention back to the mayor's speech.

"... and with the turn of the century, I only see great things happening here in the future. Now let us start the festival with a bang."

_Boom! _An explosion was heard from along the street, followed by a second explosion closer by. They were followed by whooshing sound and a pop. As Ben looked up, he saw the fireworks explode into multicoloured sparks; red, green, blue and yellow. The second firework exploded followed by a third and a fourth. It continued to illuminate the night sky as people cheered and clapped. Ben stared at the display, bewildered by the spirit of it all.

Not too far away from where Ben was standing. A man was watching the show with his wife and child. A pain suddenly came from inside the father's body, a excruciating pain like something trying to tear him open from the inside. He grunted in pain and in agony, fell to the floor.

_Need to get away. _

"Honey, what's wrong?" The woman asked turning to her husband. Their daughter also turned and gripped her mother's hand tighter.

"Mummy, what's wrong with daddy? What's happening?"

Her dad smiled at her and stood up, clutching his stomach.

"Daddy's fine darling. I've just got a belly-ache."

He turned to his wife.

"I'll be back I just gotta sit down for a bit or something."

His wife nodded with a worried look of concern on her face as she watched her husband run into the crowds, still clutching his stomach.

"Watch the show, dear, you'll miss it. Daddy will be right back."

However the father did not come back.

An hour into the show and Ben's legs had started to ache so he was now sitting down on the pavement in-between two girls with their parents. The firework display had finished but festival continued as the parade had begun. Groups of people had started to perform acts down the high street such as the gymnastics team from the local school doing a routine down the street or the school band which was now marching down behind the gymnasts. The festival usually continued up till midnight but Ben had decided he was tired and wasn't going to stay that long.

_I'll go when the parade ends. That's about in 30 minutes. Nothing brilliant happens after then._

People in the crowd had now started to wave around those glow-in-the-dark sticks which people seemed to love so much. Ben didn't care much for that so watched others wave them around, which he thought was more fun than holding and waving them.

Harry Wood hurried to his car which was parked at city hall not far from the high street which he gave his speech. He had left shortly after the parade had started in time to be ready for tonight. He didn't want anything unfortunate to happen. He stepped inside the car and tapped the driver on the shoulder.

"Take me home. I need to get ready for tonight."

The engine started and the car quickly drove off. Harry sat at the back of the car, staring up at the sky, praying the moon wouldn't come out before he got back and was safe.

_Should make it on time._

The youth rushed through the crowds, bumping through anyone who got into his way. He didn't turn to apologise but instead continued walking for he did not care about his rudeness. All he cared about was unleashing the beast inside. He could sense the fear of the people around him as they met his eyes and this made him all the more excited. He now would just have to wait.

Ben yawned and stood up and stretched, his legs stiff after sitting down for so long. He checked his watch to see that is was nearly eleven-thirty. The parade had finally finished and with an amazing performance at the end, Ben felt no regrets about coming tonight to see the festival.

_It was a hell of a lot better than last's year rubbish. _

As he started to walk, he noticed crowds of people leaving to and sighed. He hoped to have avoided the traffic of people on the way back to his car. He only parked it around the block but with most people walking the same way, the walk might as well have been a mile away. He started to up his walking speed in an attempt to walk past most people before they decided it was time to go home. A sudden bang stopped him and everyone else and turned their attention to the sky as one last firework went off. It exploded into bright sparks which lit up the sky once more.

"Look mummy."

Ben heard the little girl and saw her point to the sky to near where the firework exploded. Ben followed her arm and also looked up to see the moon, the full moon glowing in the sky.

A second latter several screams where heard down the street from where Ben was. He turned to see people running into the street and away from whatever was behind them. A growling could be heard as a huge hairy beast, shaped like a dog ran past the crowds of people. Ben could see it ran past people, who did not hesitate to run out of the way, and onto the high street road. Ben ran closer to the road as people dashed past him, shoving into him as they ran. A high- pitched scream came from a woman as she fell over onto the ground. Ben rushed over to the road and saw the dog-monster pounce its way on top of her as she screamed.

_That's the thing. That's the monster that devoured my livestock and howls in the middle of the night from the forest._

Ben recognised it's face from the window as the memory of the night of his encounter with the wolf came back to him. Ben felt horror, confusion and anger at the beast and impulsively charged at the wolf. Not knowing what he was doing, he struck the wolf with his fist as it growled at the woman underneath. The wolf reacted and swung it's lanky arm. The force of the blow sent Ben in the air with a thud as he fell back down into the pavement. The last thing Ben remembered before blacking out was the screams of people around him as someone dragged him into an alleyway to avoid being trampled on.

The beast turned back to the woman beneath it to find she had run off and was lost in the crowds. The monster growled and stared at the people running around it, away from it. Instinctively it howled into the night at the moon and the animal sprinted into an alleyway, disappearing into the darkness.

An hour later, the scene of the high street was deserted. The wind blew through the street, picking up litter along the way. The street lights lit up the shadows around the shops and buildings. The full moon lay in the sky, surrounded by clouds. Ben lay still in the night, unconscious in the alleyway.


End file.
